


A force to be reckoned with

by Elves



Series: RespectUs [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: -Ish, AU, Bondage, Empire vs Order, Force Choking, Force User Hux, Gore, M/M, Manipulation, Sexual tension for days, Sith Hux, Slow Burn, The First Order is corrupted from the inside, The Sith, They don't respect each other, a lot of arguing, a lot of gore, autocorrect tries to fight, awkward pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-15
Updated: 2016-04-15
Packaged: 2018-06-02 09:19:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6560752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elves/pseuds/Elves
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The First Order is corrupted from the inside by Sith operatives. One of them has an important job in manipulating an important force on the Order's side. The manipulation goes easier than expected, only for more complicated reasons that make everything else planned in the subterfuge a whole lot difficult.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A force to be reckoned with

Kylo extended his fingers out, the reflections of them against the glass playing out over the distant stars as though marking a pathway on a map that only he could see. He stared out for a long time, the reflective nature of his mask giving nothing away as to his mood. Yet, the rise and very jarring fall of his shoulders gave knowledge to the fact that he had given a deep sigh.

  
He dropped his hand to his side, for a moment clenching it into a fist before it relaxed and he turned to his side. “Yes..?” He offered, though there was no one there to be immediately seen.

  
“I was told that you had been looking for me?” The silken voice of the General revealed itself first before shadows trickles over the pale of his skin, revealing his face as though they were nothing more than oil running over his youthful features.

  
Youthful though it was, the constant stony expression of control only made him look aged beyond his years.

  
“Ah,” The distorted voice responded, a wry smile twisting his expression from beneath his mask. “Yes, I had forgotten that I summoned you.” His fingers curled and loosened, as though stretching. But it wasn’t the case, any force sensitive would have sensed the tremble of the force moving with his actions.

  
“You’re irritated.” It wasn’t a question. The General’s eyes searched him for a while, cloaked concern in the depths of them before he glanced instead to where Kylo had been looking from the windows.  
There was a small growl from beneath the mask, barely enough to be picked up by his voice modifier, but yet Hux still impossibly managed to catch it. “Excellent observational skills as usual General.” The sarcasm was dry, his tone biting with whatever had caused his irritation as the black shrouded figure paced in front of him.

  
Hux waited patiently, he was used to the other behaving so childishly and petulant. There was little that didn’t cause some upset in him, some annoyance or full blown tantrum that would end up with corpses around him. Though, he wasn’t proud to admit that he was used to it, especially when it was something that he felt that he had to deal with almost exclusively. That being that not many others could deal with him, either out of lack of patience or lack of nerves.

  
He had plenty of both.

  
“Surely your need for my presence hasn’t caused this change in your mood?” He asked softly, clearly testing the waters as to how much he could wind him up before the inevitable snapping occurred. He always found the brooding to be the worst part of the other’s moods, the aftermaths of his explosions were always easier to clean up and deal with.

  
It worked perfectly, in but a second Kylo had released the light of the blade and the flash of red curled through the air before tearing a large crevasse in Hux’s own chair, both sides creaking to a loud clatter on the floor.

  
The General barely flinched, though his eyes rolled at the overzealous nature of the other to his destruction.

 

  
“Do not assume you have such a sway over me. You don’t.”  
“Clearly.” He stepped closer, each step slow and deliberate as he kept his eyes on him. There was no rushing when in the presence of someone so volatile, that was just how it was dealing with Ren.

  
“Stop,” Kylo growled it out, but it wavered to be weaker than was usual, even despite the mask changing it.

 

Hux didn’t stop. “Why my chair then?”

  
“To prove a point,” He hesitated, the closing in on their proximity making him anxious as they were becoming far too close to one another. “I-I said **stop**.”

  
He did stop then, but not out of taking Kylo’s command, but rather because he had already become as close as he needed to be in that moment. “Stop what? Picking up after your mess?” A trace of amusement lit in his eyes and he grasped one half of his chair, picking it up easily despite the heavy black metal that it was made from. Still not losing eye contact with the polarized lenses of the other’s mask.

  
The black shape of Kylo watched him almost warily. There was the need to take a step back, to lose the strange tension they had between each other. But to lose it and to do that would be to concede, so he stayed. It was unnerving, with Hux, Kylo at times felt like he wasn’t wearing a mask, never felt that any expression of feeling inside was hidden. It was all laid bare, the fact only making his actions all the more obvious in the way he moved or reacted beyond his face.

  
With Hux there looking over what remained of his chair and sorting the pieces he found that each movement the General took made him unwillingly flinch or move himself in opposition to it. So when the other took the half over to the side of the room and returned to shift the other, Kylo took his chance to turn and move back to the window.

  
He had hoped it hadn’t been noticed, but in the reflection of the window he could see that Hux was once again looking at him curiously.

 

“You’re afraid of me.”

  
The lightsaber, still unsheathed and unstable as it was, trembled in his grip. “Fear is for weaker men, but even so, when even the men who serve you don’t fear you enough to -obey-, how do you expect me to?”  
A chuckled came from him. “Now you’re trying to provoke a reaction from me.” He tutted, as though scolding a child.

  
The lightsaber withdrew and Kylo returned it back to his side. The ever obvious sign of a sigh showed on him but still, like the rest of him, trembled with that suppressed rage. “Provoke you? I am just stating facts.”

  
Hux didn’t even acknowledge what the other had said, instead he just continued in getting himself closer.  
“Don’t..” He removed his mask, somehow hoping that removing it would make his words more severe and worthy of being heard. Hoping that his words wouldn’t be taken as anything other than what they were. But without the mask it was only easier to see that twisted expression. But Ren had never been stoic nor intimidating, especially not to Hux who had seen his growth within the Order firsthand as they had rose in ranks similarly despite their opposite ends.

  
“I’m not afraid of you.”

  
“You should be.”

  
“Ooh, scary, terrifying.” Hux’s eyes never left his and his expression didn’t change at all with his mocking. Kylo wasn’t sure what was worse, the open mocking or the way that he managed to say those words without expression. It only made Hux look as though he were impervious to any threat.

  
“You know my capabilities, you know what I can do.” It was a desperate attempt for respect, but he still tried.

  
Hux didn’t falter, almost cutting the other off with how fast he responded. “That’s precisely why I’m not afraid, Ren. I know your limitations.”

  
Gritting his teeth, he glared back at him, utterly enraged. “You don’t know anything.”

  
“Don’t I?” He closed the gap between them.

  
The tension was palpable, Kylo swallowed and tried to take a step back, but when his heel hit the terminal behind him he instead straightened, squaring up to him.

  
“Why don’t you try, I think it’s you who doesn’t know what I am capable of.” Suddenly Hux’s grip was around his wrist, tightening and pulling it close to him. It was a strong grip, nothing like what the General gave off in his usual attitude or stance, showing a hidden strength that Kylo made to fight.

  
“S-st..!”

  
“Stop? Why don’t you make me?” Hux kept his voice low, not wanting to bring anyone in there with any ruckus. He knew that Kylo wouldn’t and that what he had seen of him already put his long running relationship with the other, professional or not, staying his hand. He didn’t have enough control over himself to know that if he were to try anything that he wouldn’t accidentally hurt him in the process.  
“Coward.” Hux pressed, body so close to his that the sudden movement of his hand slipping over Kylo’s waist caused the other to shudder involuntarily. “You’re shaking.”  
Kylo’s eyes flashed, nostrils flaring in his anger as he instantly used the force against the other, pressing against Hux’s mind in an attempt to forcibly penetrate the layers of it. Kylo was like a needle in pressing against him, but Hux’s mind was steel. The end only pushed back against Kylo, the blunt end of it going back into him. His eyes widened in a mixture of shock and fear.

  
“What? You hadn’t noticed?”

 

The lack of words to respond to that made itself very clear in Kylo’s expression.

  
“Ah, I thought that my little.. Demonstration had..” He sighed, a disappointed sound.

He was far too dumbfounded to react.

  
“Clearly hints aren’t enough for you, I suppose I should make my situation clearer for you.”

  
Kylo instantly threw up as much of a block as he could against the other. If Hux could resist him so easily and without breaking the mask of calm, he didn’t want to think what would happen if he tried anything against him instead. “What are you?” He managed finally, eyes sharp as he took in what was once had only been a General.

  
There was no meekness, if there had ever been any before in him. Everything about him exuded power, an undeniable pressure against Kylo’s force control. It was akin to an arm wrestle, but in Kylo’s case it was as though he were against a brute that slowly forced him down only to give him some small amount of dignity by not doing it in one quick move.

  
“Have you figured it out yet?” He asked, his expression showing no sign of strain even as Kylo sweated and breathed heavily in duress.

  
“Shut... Up...!”

  
Hux rolled his eyes, but when he returned his gaze back to him his eyes were alight with aggression and the forced slammed itself through Kylo’s mind. It was over before he was ever aware of it starting. Whatever ploy of dignity he had tried to give him in being gentle before had vanished.

  
“Mother’s boy. Yet, you were ashamed of the mistakes she made in being with your father, ashamed that she chose someone like him.”

  
Kylo went to lash out, but before his free hand could even raise, Hux had him in a force chokehold flat against the cool uneven surface of the terminal. Which only riled Kylo move. “Y-you fucking-!!” The release of any physical hold made him hesitate, but being slammed back so forcefully didn’t help either.

  
“Careful, Ren, you shouldn’t be threatening the one in control of your breathing.” Hux smirked, flexing the force’s tightness over the young force user’s throat. “If you’re wondering how it is possible, I think you and I both already know. The only question you should be thinking of is why.”

  
Kylo could feel the slow rising of heat into his face, the cool air at his neck as he dropped eye contact with Hux through trying to focus some leeway in breathing. It was impossible to do it by his fingers, but still he tried that too, finding his throat.

  
“I’ve been watching you, Ren, we all have,” A chuckle sounded and Kylo could feel the cool leather of the other’s gloves caressing his cheek. Thumbs brushed over his jawline, leading up until they touched the plush of his lips. “Documenting your potential.”

  
Kylo pulled his head away, trying to get away. But the hold on him didn’t budge, instead he was met with the full force of Hux’s eyes the moment he looked back. It was as if he had never been truly looked at before. The way that Hux’s eyes searched his face, looking over him with such interest that deeply penetrated right to his core. The force relaxed around his throat.

  
“The fuck you mean by that?” Embarrassment only turned to anger and although he couldn’t get out of the General’s touch, he still could shrug away and offer a choice glare of defiance.

  
“You know; I don’t think I’ll ever get over how you look without that thing on.” Hux smiled, his gaze dropping to the other’s lips for a moment before biting his own sensually.

  
“If you’re trying to manipulate me, you’re going the wrong way about it, General.” His voice was hard, yet it crumbled towards the end, unsure of his words and unsure if he even was the General he believed him to be. “If you really have been watching me, you should know me better.”

  
“Manipulate you?”

  
“Yes,” He lifted his chin a little, giving a look down at him. If it was only to give himself the most minor advantage he didn’t care. It was enough. “It would explain your previous treatment of me.”

  
The redhead’s smugness was obvious. “You have such little confidence in yourself for someone so proud. Yet you haven’t asked me about it.” Hux released his hold from the other, fingers treading a light pathway to Kylo’s collar and worming their way inside. “My guess is; you don’t want to know. You don’t want to accept you were beaten-.”

  
“You haven’t beaten me.” The young force user interrupted, lights of the terminals blaring full force before shutting down to their usual dull glow.

  
He was angry.

 

Though, that was already obvious.

  
“I told you what I am, a long time ago, in fact. Yet, Snoke doesn’t know. Why is that, Ren...?” A small tug popped the button of that so easy to undo collar, his index aligning with the zip pull and pressing down to undo that too. He only had parted it a few inches before Kylo was looking away in embarrassment. “Even now... You could try to stop me, you could shout for help, call for backup, anything-.”

  
Those bleak eyes looked back at him, torn with betrayal and some other emotion that Hux couldn’t find it in him to place.

 

They spoke without need of words.

  
The zip traveled down further, meeting the other’s navel before Hux’s gloved fingers slipped in to touch the pale skin of Kylo’s collarbone, the stark contrast of all that black on such vampiric white skin almost artistic.

  
“Maybe we have a mutual goal.”

  
“Don’t-!” Kylo sounded like he was almost begging, frowning in his inner turmoil that Hux was becoming generally more aware that he wasn’t privy to. “Whatever it is you want to do.. Don’t make it about that.”  
It was Hux’s turn to be confused, confused at the earnest expression in his face. But he soon quenched it. “We both know why you called me here and we both know that you have always known I wasn’t one of you. You won’t rat me out. But you won’t join.”

  
Kylo cracked his knuckles, the frown smoothing out into something far more passive. Something that tried so hard to be blank but failed for all the fire and turmoil in his eyes.

  
Hux, whether intentional or not, licked his lips.

  
Kylo remained looking back at him, seemingly unfazed. “Tell me, General, why do you think that is?” His confidence had returned, at least partially and he didn’t drop his gaze with the question.

  
The General, or ex-General, had never before seen Kylo with such a smouldering intensity in his eyes. Without the comfort of a mask to hide behind his every emotion was exposed, revealed in all of its uncertainty and weakness. But also in its strength too. It was what had endeared Hux to him in the beginning. But the fire he had in that moment was altogether different from anything he had shown before. A real power that wasn’t compensation.

  
He definitely didn’t dislike it.

  
“I..” he had forgotten what he had meant to say, words crumbling to ash in his mouth from Ren’s fire.  
“Why haven’t I outed you like the disease you are?”

  
“Weaken? No, my intent was...” Shit, now it was Hux’s turn to be self-conscious, removing his hold on the other and taking a short step back. Any hold he had put on the other through the force had completely relinquished. “To realign the views of Snoke and have you join us.”

  
“And in that, get close to me?” Disappointment was heavy in Kylo. “To use me to rule the First Order under Sith control?”

  
Hux hardly considered that he had gotten ‘close’ to Kylo, as far as he was concerned their only interactions had been hateful at worst and spiteful at best. Every moment had been catered to have the other losing control, of watching him slip further into the darkness of the force. But still, better to have him think something else. “So you have figured it out?”

  
“Of course.” Kylo moved out of the position he had been forced into, rolling his shoulders back stiffly.  
“But still, you said nothing.”

  
“Of course.”

 

“So you agree with me?”

  
There was a pause, a pause which only turned into silence and a lack of response from Kylo altogether. Overstepping his boundaries completely, Hux probed gently with the force, trying to read those thoughts. With no advanced abilities to resist it and having long since given up regardless, Kylo let him in.

Something Hux had never expected.

  
There was firm rejection of the Sith in there, their inability to stay in power seen as an inevitable with their weaknesses. Even their shortsighted goals of an Empire over an Order. No galaxy or universe could be ruled by that in Kylo’s eyes. But then, Hux found himself in that picture, some sort of adulation to the idea of Hux himself as that one exception to that rule, the one person with...

  
Hux felt himself pressured into being forced out suddenly, then the half of his chair that had been destroyed earlier began sliding towards him at a speed. He lifted his hand, raising a solid wave of the force with it to crash against his chair.

  
“You don’t trust me with that yet.” His unshakable nature barely put a break in his tone from how much control the wall took and he soon stopped the chair, sliding it back into place.

  
Kylo’s mouth worked through what looked like a sour taste. “You want me to say it out loud?”

  
“It would help our situation if we were on the same page.” He shrugged.

  
“Go fuck yourself.”

  
“So hostile, if you channelled more of that hostility-.”

  
“I could become crippled like you?” Kylo supplied. “Losing an important part of the force?” To stay in the balance of both and to use both sides was the most important part of his training, if he were to lose that part of the light, he would regret it he knew. Just not to get swallowed by either side was the hard part, the part that took the most out of him. He knew that Hux would never understand just how much more powerful he was for using both than limiting himself and only mastering one.

  
Hux laughed softly. “It’s that same tightrope which is making you so weak.”

  
“People aren’t able to function from pure rage and neither are they from a lack of emotion. It’s foolish to force one or the other. We are contradictions of each, embrace it.”

  
“You couldn’t have said it better if Snoke had said it himself, but... Oh, wait. He did.” There was no trace of humor in Hux’s tone, not even in mocking.

  
“I have never before realized how similar the Jedi are to the Sith, I had thought it impossible. But you’re both controlling and if anyone else has any opinion different to you, you make sure they’re viewed as the enemy. Well, I’m not brainwashed.”

  
“So why haven’t you outed me? If you were that sure of what Snoke was doing you would have told him and you wouldn’t have been having these thoughts of us ruling together.”

  
“Those were passing thoughts!!” He shouted back at him, temper flaring at being caught out. His face burned with his shame, he realized he should have put up more of a resistance to his probing. Realizing it was all too late there didn’t help though, Hux wanted to know too badly and as much as he wanted him to figure it out he wasn’t sure that he had the strength to say it so bluntly himself.

  
It was only when Hux saw just how red Kylo had gotten, how affected he was and how his chest rose and fell so heavily. Only when he saw the shame that had misaligned itself to anger, that he realized.

  
Realized why Kylo had kept his betrayal a secret, why he had thought of the two of them ruling. He felt worse for not realizing it before. Something so obvious should not have been ignored for as long as it had.

  
“Ren, don’t tell me you...” The thoughts of his earlier teasing came back in full force.

  
Shame blew over in a smoke over what had once been such a strong fire in his eyes. “Took you long enough. You can’t do that, touch people like that and treat them like you-.” He stopped himself, his breathing heavy even as he tried to calm himself down.

  
Hux resisted all temptation to try and stop that calming, resisting in pushing the other enough to have him release that inner part of him that relied on the dark side of the force. “But I do.” Hux answered a question that had never been asked. “I do care about you.”

  
“Fuck you.” The other spat at him. “And fuck you for making it at least halfway believable.

  
Hux felt like he was clutching at straws, any hopes of keeping the other within his grasp were slipping. Was it about manipulation anymore? He couldn’t tell. Whether or not that even mattered was long since moribund. But the panic was real, the fear that Ren would leave him or give up on him was the real driving force.

  
“Don’t even embarrass yourself with an apology. It just makes things worse for you.” Kylo gritted his teeth, sure that his grinding was slowly destroying them the longer he was dealing with the situation.

  
“Because you will forgive me.”

  
The only response given was a withering glare.

  
“And you don’t want to.”

  
The clenched tightness of his jaw finally fell slack. Disbelief evident. “You actually believe that, don’t you?”

  
“Give me a reason not to.”

  
The other started to walk away, frustration swirling about him in the force like a toxic smog. Though, that was usual for him, what wasn’t was how serious it was. How truly dense it was. "If I do that then you die." He made to push past him, deliberately choosing the path that featured Hux directly in front of him so that he could do the most damage.

  
Not that it mattered much to the stunned General, who simply stood aside to let the other past. The push only just grazed him for the quickness of his reaction.

  
“I’m sorry.”

  
Kylo stopped, his fists that had been relaxed at his sides turned to fists, the silhouette of his whole shape trembling with his anger. But he had stopped nonetheless.

  
“What for?” His voice was careful, but it was barely contained for how much it shook.

  
Hux’s cool grey-green eyes centered on him. “For not making it obvious enough.”

  
The trembling had stopped, instead Kylo’s whole body had tensed and Hux reached into his overcoat in taking advantage of the stillness of the other force user. Kylo turned, wary suddenly.

  
The wariness was well founded for Hux retrieved a familiar looking medal cylindrical object, though at first sight looking rounded it wasn’t quite so cylindrical at all. It was faceted and layered into with panels and mechanisms, at least ten inches in side and Kylo instantly knew what it was. His hand opened to drop it, but instead of shattering on the floor in a loud metaling clank it sauntered down and rested against the floor.

“I’m serious, Ren.”

  
It wasn’t often that Kylo saw other lightsabers, most of what he remembered from them was with them facing him, the saber of light aimed at him. So seeing it disarmed and on the floor didn’t put him at as much ease as Hux could have intended for him. Instead, it made him feel sickened and all the warier of the other’s power. The craftsmanship in it was nothing like his own, it was skilled, honed to a point that he could respect in how exact and comfortable it looked to hold. It perfectly suited Hux.

  
He was all too aware of how the instability of his blade must have looked to Hux in comparison.

  
“You called me here for a reason, before all of this, what was it?”

  
“Why is that important now?”

  
“I don’t understand why you’re pretending to be so shocked about this, I told you before what I was. You knew that I came from Imperials before this. You knew what my father was, what my family have been.” Hux could feel his impatience rolling off him and wasn’t surprised at all if Kylo picked up on it, in fact, he wanted him to.

  
“You say this, but you have never once tried-.”

  
“Tried to what? Recruit you? I have. Do you honestly think that I am the sort to ask how high when the Sith ask me to jump? They asked me to try to recruit you, as far as I’m concerned my job was done from the first moment you said no all that time ago.”

  
“Manipulation.”  
“Oh,” Hux flicked his fingers, the lightsaber rolling over once on the floor as though itching to return to his side. “Shut the fuck up, will you?” Hux snorted. “If, I wanted to manipulate you, you would already be at my side with them.”

 

He grimaced. “You are disgustingly confident.”

  
“But I’m also right and you know it.” Hux didn’t smile, in fact, instead he looked troubled with what he was saying. Worried of his own capabilities. “Or I could force you.”

  
Kylo bared his teeth at the thought, upper lip curling into a feral snarl. “You wouldn’t dare. You couldn’t.”  
The force crackled around them, Kylo’s robes swaying lightly with the pressure of it. Even in their distance, Hux’s own coat rippled with the effect. It was a testament as to how much potential Kylo truly had in his power. The fact that Hux could feel the intent, the pure refusal, even the same thread of betrayal all in that rush of it. It was delectable.

  
“All that potential and you want to serve him over me? We could override Snoke, it could just be us at the top, I know that’s what you want.”

  
The heat worsened, stinging like the wind near a sea. Each breath Hux took made his lungs feel like they were filled with fire, He could only imagine what it would be like to kiss Kylo like that. He wanted to taste it directly, feel the repression roll from Ren like waves.

  
Of course, Kylo could feel that intent from their shared force. Their two pressures mixing in the air around them, already making him backing up. “St-.”

  
Hux quickly silenced him. “You’re not really going to tell me to stop again, are you?” He asked, quirking a brow at him. “I know it’s me you want; you know I know.” He levelled his gaze with him, which took all the air from Kylo, forcing him to look away.

  
“Excuse me, General.” He took the initiative in slowing his mask on his head, quickly turning back. Beneath it, he crumpled from what little passiveness he had barely been able to keep together.

  
Hux snapped the lightsaber back into his hand as Kylo left, all too conscious of being seen with something like that on his person and what it would cause. The sound of the doors behind him and the lack of that suffocating pressure let him know that Kylo had gone.


End file.
